Analogue to Digital

sanfairyanne

Please forgive the title I couldn't think of a better term. I have an elderly relative who has all her share certificates in a muddle. She has no interest in looking at her finances and is essentially burying her head in the sand. I have tried to explain that it would make more sense to have shares held within a digital format, truth be told though, I don't know how to go about doing this. I think it would make more sense to have an online portfolio with for example Lloyds. Can I ask the forum if anyone knows how I'd go about helping her to get her shares into Lloyds, is it even possible, would they need to be sold then repurchased. If this were the case it might be more hassle than it's worth. I'm unsure precisely how many companies are involved, I believe there would be more than 10 but less than 30. I'm also fairly sure some would not be available with Lloyds, she has some odd ones such as Anglo Ashanti and Gold Fileds Ltd (both on the Jo'berg stock exchange).

Many thanks in advance

NottinghamKnight

If they are happy with paper certificates then probably best left alone. Are they receiving dividends and are these still by cheque? The paper certificates can be sent into a broker and recorded digitally, this would normally done for a sale and so charges for doing so would be included in the sale. lloyds could do this, I have a halifax share dealing account which is very low cost and would suit this purpose but no reason to do so if they are happy. There may be more restrictions on foreign held shares, potentially more cost or may not even be dealt by some brokers. The other thing that would be useful to know is roughly how much value the shares she holds have, both individually and in total.   

sanfairyanne

Thanks NottinghamKnight, yes still receiving dividends. I suspect some of these cheques never get cashed, hence why I proposed looking into digitising the portfolio. So you're saying Lloyds could help with the sale, but of course there would be a selling fee for each holding and a fee to re-purchase the holding. I guess this would mean a minimum of several hundred pounds. Perhaps it's better then to just leave it as it is, I can collate everything and get it better organised. 

NottinghamKnight

Probably best to leave, you wouldn't need to sell and re-buy but there may be a charge for converting to digital. If you contact the registrars they will normally arrange for dividends to be paid direct to bank accounts as that saves them money too, that would definitely be worth doing. 

ElephantBoy57

On some shares the dividends can be automatically reinvested, another share certificate with a small number of shares would be sent.

refluxer

There should be no charge for posting off FTSE certificates to online brokers like the Halifax or x-o in order to 'digitise' them and there are no downsides to doing this IMO, other than it sounds like your relative would probably need some assistance from you if and when she came to sell. You would just need to make sure you choose an account with no monthly charges or inactivity fees in order to avoid any ongoing costs. If you were able to get the dividends paid out into her bank account, then that would mean no more forgotten cheques. 

I don't have any personal experience with dealing with unusual / international shares though, so you'd have to read the T&Cs for the account you're interested in to see if holding / dealing in those types of share would be possible.

Share dematerialisation is still a good few years away, but it would make sense to get her house in order before then, IMO. If she's not happy with posting her certificates off at the moment, then even helping her to do some research to see whether some of the companies still exist would be a good start. 

Eco_Miser

For this purpose, Lloyds is actually Halifax Share Dealing Ltd, which also trades as Iweb.

Each brand has a different charging structure.

For just holding shares, Iweb is the cheapest, but for just holding shares, keeping them in paper form is even cheaper and easier.

As mentioned above, you can contact the registrar of each firm to get dividends paid electronically rather than by cheque. Contact details will be on the tax voucher accompanying the cheque.

While HDSL can trade on several stock exchanges, Jo'berg stock exchange is not one of them.

LobsterMemory

Not only are there contact details on the tax voucher, there's usually a tear-off form to request and provide bank details.

Micron

I am currently looking at opening an iWeb account mainly to manage my shares which at the moment are all held in certificate form but there doesn’t seem to be a stock certificate transfer form to download on the open site, does this become an available option on an active account only ?

eskbanker

Micron said:

I am currently looking at opening an iWeb account mainly to manage my shares which at the moment are all held in certificate form but there doesn’t seem to be a stock certificate transfer form to download on the open site, does this become an available option on an active account only ?

When logged in there's a link available to https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/assets/transfer-form-a.pdf, not sure if there's any navigation to it available publicly but it's just a flat PDF so seems openable even when not logged in....

Micron

eskbanker said:

When logged in there's a link available to https://www.iweb-sharedealing.co.uk/assets/transfer-form-a.pdf, not sure if there's any navigation to it available publicly but it's just a flat PDF so seems openable even when not logged in....

Thank you for the link, there doesn't seem to be a way to get to it from the web site, I can now go ahead and open an account.